Today we have the Haynes Owners Workshop Manual for the MINI by Randall Martynn. Although this book is in hardcover, the 143 pages are printed on almost newspaper-like paper with only black and white photos.

MINI 50 Years by Rob Golding is an interesting little book with a clever hardcover case. The bright yellow cover has a magnetic closure and is opened by lifting the bonnet section (to uncover the MINI engine) and then the main cover to uncover the glossy softcover book inside.

Published in 2007, the fifty years covered in this book stretch from the concept in 1956 through the MINI models of 2006 (rather than the usual 1969-2009 celebration from the original launch).

After an introduction titled “Mini Trinity: Classic, Current, and Future” the chapters are:

Issigonis starts work

BL to BMW

Making It

Cooper’s the Name. Speed Is the Game

The Man Behind the Brand

The Man Behind the Style

Hello again, Sir. Now What?

Mini and the Coachbuilding Tradition

Get Involved: A Guide to Learning More and Seeing Other Dimensions of the Mini Tradition

MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper ‘S’ is an unusual “book”. On the bright yellow cover it states “THIS BOOK CONTAINS ROAD TESTS AND FEATURES ON ALL MINI COOPER MODELS”. Despite the MINI on the cover, the first third of the book actually contains articles on the classic Mini.

Published by Unique Motor Books, this soft-cover book has 72 photocopied pages and is really a compilation of old articles from the UK magazines “Autocar”, “Autocourse”, and “Sporting Motorist” published between 1963 and 2002.

This book is only recommended if you are a serious Mini or MINI book collector.

Titled simply MINI, this book by Patrick C. Paternie is another early book covering the new MINI. Much like Graham Robson’s New MINI book, Paternie’s 96 page softcover book covers the history of the classic Mini and the development of the new MINI by Rover and BMW.

One of the first books to be published about the new MINI was this one: New MINI by Graham Robson from 2002. The book covers the beginnings of the MINI from the BMW takeover of Rover, early concepts like the Spiritual and ACV30, initial marketing, moving to Plant Oxford, and the launch in 2001.

In 2005, a second edition was published with sixteen addition pages of updates including the 2005 model refresh, the MINI One D, and the MINI Convertible.

MISSION MINI was a worldwide contest organized by MINI and held in Barcelona in November 2003. Twenty-one teams competed to track down “stolen” artwork by artist Peter Halley. The crime’s story and characters were set up in a short book MISSION MINI by award-winning crime writer Val McDermid. This 52 page book was available in several languages including English, French, and German.

Published in 2004, the original MINI Cooper Service Manual by Bentley Publishers covered the first generation, pre-revised MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper S from 2002, 2003, and 2004. This large and thick paperback book consisted of 800 pages of information for do-it-yourself repairs. When published it had a cover price of $99.95.

In 2007, a new version appeared which covered the final two years of the first-generation MINI, including the MINI Convertible. This edition expanded to 1,084 pages and cover price of $119.95.

Most books about the MINI come from the US, UK, and Germany, the three largest markets for the MINI. Japan is an important market for the MINI, just as it was for the classic Mini. In 2002, this small book called vol.2 MINI written by (Koichi Inouye) was published.

Written entirely in Japanese (except for the model names), the 167 page glossy book begins with a chapter on the MINI One, Cooper, and Cooper S models. Almost all of the rest of the book covers the history, models, and special editions of the classic Mini. Appendices include sales figures, specifications, and diagrams of MINI and Mini models.

Buy this book at Amazon.jp (ISBN-10: 4584162441, ISBN-13: 978-4584162446).